Soto (6-0-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) meets Michael McDonald (13-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) at UFC 139 as part of a two-fight preliminary card that airs live on Spike TV in advance of the event’s pay-per-view main card. The action takes place Saturday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

You could say the whole adventure started when Soto made his way from Tijuana to the U.S. at age 12. He was a small kid, so he was always getting bullied and always getting in fights.

Eventually, he earned a reputation on the street as a guy much bigger than his 135-pound frame, but it wouldn’t be until he completed a stint in the Long Range Surveillance Detachment in the Army’s 25th Infantry Division that MMA would take over his life and give him the rush he needed.

Prior to that, he had to settle for the usual jumping out of planes and firing M-4 assault rifles and rappelling down this or that cliff while stationed in Hawaii.

“I was going to school full-time and working full-time,” Soto said. “I just kind of wasn’t happy where I was going, so I just decided to follow this itch that I had to become an MMA fighter, and I’ve been following it ever since.”

It was only fitting that his MMA adventure started right back where he came from in Tijuana. There were amatuer kickboxing and MMA matches held south of the border all the time, and he needed the experience, so he took a fight.

“I showed up, and it turned out that nobody had gloves, so it was going to be a bare-knuckle fight,” he said. “We were originally going to use shinpads, but not everybody had shinpads. I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ But I was like, there’s only one way to find out if I got this or not, right?”

Turns out, Soto did have it, and he went on to a professional career that started with six consecutive wins. More than half of them came in the first round.

“My parents have always told me that if you reach for the stars, you’ll hit the moon,” he said. “From the get-go, this has been my dream from when I started training. I wanted to go to the UFC, and I ended up finding the right team, the right coach, and sure enough, I put myself with other guys that had the same ambition.”

One of those guys is Walel Watson, a 5-foot-11, 135-pound beanstalk who stopped Joseph Sandoval in his octagon debut at UFC on Versus 6. Watson and Soto train together at the awesomely named MMA squad Team Hurricane Awesome in San Diego.

Soto was one of hundreds who tried his hand at reality-show TV when he auditioned for the 14th season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Unfortunately, the tryouts came as he was cutting weight for an upcoming fight, and things didn’t go so well during the interview portion of the audition.

“I didn’t make the Hollywood part, man,” he said. “I was a little miserable, and I was kind of not into the whole ‘hey, look at me’ attitude. They were like, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ I’m like, ‘Hey. So I train and I fight, and this is what I want to do.’ I was so tired and miserable.”

Thankfully, UFC contracts can still be one without the title of Mr. Personality, and Soto got filed away by the promotion on the strength of the skills Soto showed before he turned into Mr. Crankypants. When UFC newcomer Johnny Eduardo was forced to withdraw from a fight with McDonald, he got the call on one week’s notice.

It sounded like an adventure.

“It’s been crazy, man,” Soto said. “I was already training for a fight on the same night, so it just happens to be for the UFC, now.”

McDonald, who at 20 is the youngest fighter in the UFC, is a clear favorite in the bout with more experience under his belt and a dynamic striking game that suggests a much older fighter. Soto is the underdog, but there’s an opportunity in that.

“I don’t blame the critics,” he said. “Nobody knows who I am. I think I’m going to make a good name for myself after this fight. The people automatically go to [McDonald]. But I’m going into this fight with a chance to go out and prove everybody wrong.”

And hey, if things don’t work out, there are plenty of other adventures. The crew from “Deadliest Catch” is always hiring.

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